Cabinet door construction



Feb. 15, 1966 5. F. ADAMS ETAL CABINET DOOR CONSTRUCTION Filed July 25,1962 44-A FIG. 3

INVENTORS GE F. A E

GEOR DAMS & BYGERALDIN G. ADAMS ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent azaleas CAETNET DOOR CGNSTRUCTEUN George F. Adamsand Geraldine G. Adams, both of 2111 E. 26th St., Tulsa, Okla. FiledJuly 25, 1962, Ser. No. 212,269 1 Claim. (U. 312-329) This inventionrelates to a cabinet construction. More specifically, this inventionrelates to a lipped molding that can be attached to the front peripheraledges of cabinet doors or drawers to hide the frontal edges and thespace between the door or drawer edges and the cabinet frame.

It has been the custom of the cabinet-making art to provide a lip on theperipheral edges of the front face of each cabinet door by cutting acontinuous substantially square sectioned segment from the backcircumference of the door. This lip serves both as a stop member for thedoor and to hide the space or crack between the door frame and the door.

The cutting of this segment from the back circumference of the doorrequires the use of special carpentry tools and has proven to be atime-consuming job. Also, it is not uncommon for a door to be ruinedduring the cutting of this section by splintering of the front face oredges of the door. Typically, cabinet work is made of plywood. Cabinetdoors and drawers constructed in the manner heretofore expose theplywood edge and thus do not present a neat appearance or design and areusually painted or covered in some manner.

Further, cabinet drawer facer members have eben similarly constructedwith the further requirement of interlocking connection of the drawersides and bottom with the facer. Typically, expensive dove-tail groovetype connections have been used.

Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide a means forproducing a lipped cabinet door that is relatively free of thedisadvantages of the prior cabinet making art.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a precut lippedmolding for attachment to the front peripheral areas of a cabinet doorthereby having the effect of producing a circumferential lip on thefrontal side of the door without further operation to the door.

Yet another object of this invention is to provdie a lipped molding frattachment t the frontal peripheral areas of cabinet doors and drawerswhich have been cut to fit their respective openings in the cabinetframe, which molding when so attached to the front circumference of thedoor and drawer has the effect of producing a front peripheral lip onsuch door and drawer to serve as stop members and to conceal the spacebetween the peripheral edges and the adjacent stiles of the cabinetframe.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent fromthe following description and appended claims, reference being bad tothe accompanying drawings forming a part of the specification whereinlike reference characters designate corresponding parts in the severalviews.

FIGURE 1 is a horizontal cross-sectional view through a conventionallipped cabinet door and a portion of the cabinet door frame.

FIGURE 2 is a horizontal cross-sectional view through a non-lippedcabinet door that has been provided with a lipped molding of thisinvention and a portion of the cabinet door frame.

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal cross-sectional View through a cabinet drawerthat has been provided with a lipped molding of this invention and aportion of the cabinet drawer frame.

FIGURE 4 is a partial front elevational view of a cabiattached the lipmolding of this invention.

net door provided with the lipped molding of this invention.

Referring now to FIGURE 1 there is shown in crosssection a conventionallipped cabinet door 10 set in a cabinet door frame 12. The common methodof making such a door includes first cutting the door from a large pieceof plywood or other stock material slightly larger than the dooropening. A substantially right angle shaped groove or rabbet 14 is thencut or milled around the back periphery edge of the door.

Door 12 is attached along one edge to the cabinet frame 10 by means ofat least one conventional offset hinge 24- using screws 26 into the doorand 28 into the frame. Lip portion 20 serves the dual purpose offunctioning as a stop member for the door 12 and to hide the spacebetween the edges of the door and the cabinet frame It) when the door isclosed.

The cutting of the groove 14 as above described requires the use of aspecial tool. Also, it is not uncommon for the cabinet door to splinterduring this cutting operation requiring that the door be discarded.These and certain other difficulties are alleviated through the use ofthe lipped molding of this invention.

For a specific description of this invention reference is now made toFIGURE 2 in which is shown a horizontal cross-sectional view of acabinet door to which has been As seen in that figure, a parallelpipeddoor 36 is cut to fit into the opening in the cabinet frame 32. Theopening for the door is usually rectangular and hence the door is of thesame shape, but slightly less in dimension, forming a space 31 betweenthe peripheral edges 33 of door and the frame 32. The door is definedherein as having a frontal panel 34 and a back panel 35 joined by theperipheral edges 33 which not only includes the side edges but top andbottom edges.

The door is swingably attached to open and close the opening using atleast one hinge along one side, top or bottom edge 33:. The hingetypically used with this invention includes a conventional offset typeas shown with a portion 38 attached to the door by fastener 39, and aportion 4% attached to frame 32 by fastener 41. The two portions pivotabout hinge 42. Typically, when the door 39 is in the closed position inthe frame opening, the front panel of the door extends outwardly beyondthe front of the frame.

The lipped molding 44- of this invention is attached to the frontperipheral edge of door 30 by any conventional means, not shown, such asglue, wood screws, nails, or the like. This molding is milled to asubstantially L-shape. Typically, the molding includes a short leg 46which extends outwardly and rearwardly of the door edges 33. whereas alonger leg 48 (although not limited to a longer leg) extendssubstantially parallel to the front panel 34 of door 30. The exposedsurfaces of molding 44 are provided with various ornamentation in themilling operation. Accordingly, the molding serves as a stop member forthe door 30, conceals the unsightly edges of the door and the gapbetween the edegs and the door when the door is closed. This moldingalso partially conceals the door hinge portion 33.

The lipped molding of this invention can also be used in conjunctionwith a cabinet drawer as shown in FIG- URE 3. The cabinet drawer ofFIGURE 3 consists of a front facer board 52, side boards 54 and bottom56 sized to fit the drawer opening and is slidably inserted into thespace between stiles 50 of the cabinet frame. In the constructionaccording to this invention well known lap or butt-joint connections canbe used. Molding 44-A is attached to the front edges of the side boards54 and the front edge of bottom 56 and the top edge of the front facerboard 52 in a manner similar to that described above for attachingmolding 44 to cabinet door 30. The short leg of the substantiallyL-shaped molding 44-A serves as a stop member to prevent the drawer frombeing pushed too far into the cabinet opening, conceals the exposed topperipheral edges of facer board 52 and the space 58 between the drawersides 54 and stiles 50. The long leg conceals the front edge ofsideboards 54 and bottom 56 and their joint with the front facer inaddition to the decorative effect. The L-shaped molding further addsrigidly to the drawer without expensive dove-tail or other pre-milledjoining methods.

The use of this lipped molding not only accomplishes the above describedadvantages but also gives the cabinet doors and drawers an outwardpaneled appearance as is evident in FIGURE 4. Also, this relativelyinexpensive molding is easily and quickly attached to cabinet doors anddrawers by applying ordinary carpentry techniques.

The invention has been described by reference to specific and preferredembodiments. It will be apparent, however, that many modifications canbe made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Accordingly, this invention should be construed not to be limited to theembodiment herein described but should be limited only by the scope ofthe appended claim.

We claim:

A door for a cabinet frame rectangular opening comprising thecombination of:

a unitary rectangular wood panel of size dimensionally slightly lessthan the size of said opening;

a constant cross-section L-shaped molding attached to the peripheralfrontal edge portion of said panel, said molding having two legsadjoined to form inner right angle corner edges, said molding havingouter decorative configuration;

one of said inner corner edges along one leg enveloping against apartial thickness of said panel and forming a rear edge abutment againstsaid cabinet frame and the other of said inner corner edges along theother leg enveloping against the frontal edge portion of said panel;

at least two hinges along one edge of said door such that the pivotalportion of each of said hinges extends and is affixed against said rearedge of said one leg, thence around the rearward corner formed by theintersection of the remaining thickness of said panel and the rear edgeportion of said panel so as to substantially hide said pivotal portion;and

means to aifix the other part of said hinge to said cabinet frame topermit said door to swingably open and close said opening.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 510,744 12/1893Warren 312-119 1,629,408 5/1927 Peacock 312138 X 1,970,267 8/1934 Bales312-329 2,398,528 4/1946 Hamilton 312-330 2,562,290 7/1951 Backus 3123302,762,676 9/1956 Morton 312329 3,109,685 11/1963 Skorupa 312204 FOREIGNPATENTS 546,912 4/1956 Belgium.

442,085 1/ 1936 Great Britain.

FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner.

